Re: ALAEA impotence (merged)
I would like to know why when the ALAEA and the company went on their Jolly world discovery trips a few years ago, they made a point of NOT going to Asia to see how they did it. They would go to any airline in the States and come back advocating we use the Worlds Best Practises based on the American model, now all of a sudden Asia is the flavour of the month.
Well I can tell you that the Asian Model doesn't look at reducing the number of ants crawlling over an Aircraft during a transit or Hangar check they actually use approx. double the man hours. The saving is in the pay scales, and from my experience there is a move amongst asian workers to push for better pay and conditions. So wouldn't it be ironical if they went to Asia for cheaper maintenance and it turned around and bit them in the wallet.
Chinese workers working for SASCO are asking for the same pay and conditions as those given to western contract staff. China might be coming out of the dark ages but they catch on fast. So I see the push to asia being only a temporary one and once the high paid LAE has retired and put his feet up the jobs will come back to Aus, at a reduced cost to the company.
The Airlines will be begging for staff to come out of retirement within 5 to 10 years is my prediction, so enjoy your holiday and in the mean time get a day job.